Helen Marshall’s second collection offers a series of twisted surrealities that explore the legacies we pass on to our children. A son seeks to reconnect with his father through a telescope that sees into the past. A young girl discovers what lies on the other side of her mother’s bellybutton. Death’s wife prepares for a very special funeral. In Gifts for the One Who Comes After, Marshall delivers eighteen tales of love and loss that cement her as a powerful voice in dark fantasy and the New Weird. Dazzling, disturbing, and deeply moving.

“Helen Marshall is a writer who creates real people in real situations, then uses the fantastic to pry her way inside her readers’ rib cages and break us wide open.”—Neil Gaiman

“Marshall’s work is fantastical and surreal, with similarities to that of writers like Kelly Link and Robert Shearman. But whereas Link’s stories can sometimes seem wilfully opaque, Marshall’s are built round an emotional core that is always engaging; whereas Robert Shearman might use his twisted plots for the purposes of dark comedy, Marshall’s stories are full of heartbreak and hurt. . . . Gifts for the One Who Comes After should single out Marshall as one of the most accomplished writers of the fantastic being published today, an exceptional collection likely to be among the best 2014 has to offer.”—This is Horror

“Marshall is an extremely talented, wonderful writer. . . .”—SFRevu

“Stories subtle and unsettling: Helen Marshall clothes the uncanny in new flesh and then makes it bleed.”—Kelly Link, author of Pretty Monsters and Stranger Things Happen

“Helen Marshall whispers in your ear when she fits the noose around your neck, filling you with wonder and dread, urging you into a startling, beautiful darkness. These stories—which sometimes feel more like spells—are the very best kind of unsettling.”—Benjamin Percy, author of Red Moon and The Dead Lands

“. . . Marshall is simply extraordinary.”—SF Site

“Sometimes you hear people talking about the new face of horror. Well huddle closer, children. Hair Side, Flesh Side is it. This is author Helen Marshall’s debut story collection, but she’s no stranger to these shores. . . . Marshall’s stories are frightening, touching, quirky, sexy and deeply lyrical.”—January Magazine

“Helen Marshall writes assured, accomplished prose that is as chilling as it is beautiful, and the stories she tells are as daring as they are unexpected. This superb first collection is set to make waves.”—Tim Lebbon, author of Echo City and The Thief of Broken Toys